Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(VNA) The US is committed to engaging to the East Asia Summit over the long term as it believes EAS will become a key forum for political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific, the US Secretary of State said.

“One of our highest priority is to reaffirm our commitment to the Asia-Pacific region,” Secretary Hillary Clinton said in her joint press briefing with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem in Hanoi on Oct. 30.

“We not only want to deepen our bilateral relations that we have with Vietnam and with other countries in the region, but also to participate more actively in the regional situation like ASEAN,” Secretary Clinton told the press.

She said “the US has a deep, lasting relationship with the Asia-Pacific and we want to be a good partner, friend and neighbor and one of the ways we can demonstrate that is being an active participant in organisation like EAS.”

For his part, Deputy PM and FM Khiem described the US ’s participation in the EAS as an evidence for the growing ties between the US and ASEAN.

“Together with Russia , the US ’s participation in the EAS will create an important motivation for the ties between ASEAN and its partners,” Khiem said.

At the briefing, the two FMs also talked about the two countries’ trade, education, healthcare ties and civil nuclear energy cooperation./